Clutch could do a public service by pulling down the entire BBS except for this thread, and particularly the two quotes above. Readers would know everything they need to learn about the Rockets. The problem isn't that Francis sucks or Mobley sucks -- it's that they reinforce each other's weaknesses, particularly the tendency to play 1-on-5 in crunch time. One or the other needs to be paired with a guard who can be a stabilizing influence on the offense (providing some adult supervision, so to speak).
Don't know who's to blame, our Guards for their inability to learn for past mistakes, or Coach Rudy for not being more stern. Whatever it may be, we have a better chance of missing the playoffs than getting that 6/7/8 spot. All in all, unless some miracle happens and we learn to play team ball with this group of individuals, there needs to be a major change in the off-season. Coach or Players.
Not on the road. The Rockets have not beaten any teams on the road that are currently in the top 8 in the Western Conference. The closing stretch has many tough ROAD games.
This youth argument is the complete fact and not a crock as you state... The teams that are winning in this league are the veteran teams not the ones with lots of talent... The grizzlies are loaded with talent, the clippers as well the Bulls have tons but the teams with talent and experience are the ones that win consistently... Dallas made no significant changes to their roster yet thay are much improved . Why is that ? It's because they have more experience and they learned from last year. They don't have to think about their plays as much, things are on autopilot... As old as the Jazz are they still manage win games because of their veteran experience... The Rockets didn't have that last year and adding a young key player on whats already a young team is our problem. We have only one player with playoff experience and he is our weakest starter... With rare exception young teams lose in the NBA. Yeah there are some exceptions like the Magic with Shaq and Hardaway but it still took Shaq a few years before they made it to the finals and thats with a team that everyone said was one of the most talented teams to come in a long time... No one is saying that about the Rockets accepth the owner... Bird was able to make changes for the Celtics but that still took a year and he was playing with a bunch of Veterans plus he was the best player in the League... We don't have anyone like that on our team... Stevie is a talented guard but Jason Kidd and Payton are better and you could argue that Miller, Nash. Baron Davis or also better pointguards, even Stephon Marbury has outplayed Steve. We are a young team with young starters and we will not go far this year in spite of Rudy's excellent handling of them... So you can deny that experience and veteran play matter but history has proven otherwise and you can throw up facts trying to show how the Rockets have experience but they don't... And the players that are supposed to be our leaders make to many bonehead mistakes and still have much to learn to be winners... Look how long it took Webber to come around in this league.. And even Jordan the best player of all time had three years of mediocrity, Hakeem took much longer. It takes time along with talent to win in this league and you will see the Rockets will not be making many changes over the next couple of years but the will get better anyway and that is because their experiences will make them better.
I would be lying if I said I wasnt pissed off. There are many games left to be played. Every team goes through a rough stretch during the course of the season. Lets just get this out of the way and start playing ball.
Old Man Rock, Dallas's three key cogs, Nowitzki, Nash and Finley are 24, 28 and 29 respectively. They made a pretty large trade last season adding LaFrentz and Van Exel to their rotation yet the transition was relatively seamless. Their #1 guy (Nowitzki) is younger than Francis yet they dont seem to be having problems incorporating new pieces and such. The difference is that Dallas plays intelligently. The Indiana Pacers three biggest cogs (O'Neal, Artest and Tinsley) are all under 25 yet they continue to perform well. The Rockets trio of guards have been togehter roughly four years and are old enough at 25, 28, 29 to not be making the same bonehead mistakes that a rookie makes dont you think? The problem with the offense is the reads that they make which are very inconsistent and poor. Dont you think the guards playing together for four years should be enough or do they need to be together 15 yrs? Maybe when they start approaching 40 they will finally get it.
This is actually sort of the kind of post I was hopping to get when I started this thread. Something to pull up my spirits, something to give me hope that what I am seeing is distorted in some way and things aren’t as bad as they seem. rezdawg, it would have been nice if you had put a little more effort into it though Where is Jeff or NIKEstrad to explain to me why I am wrong and things are not as bad as they seem? Seriously I wish someone would come up with some logical reason for hope other than they are just young or they just need more time to get some chemistry. My one hope is that over the course of the next couple of years that Yao Ming will become so dominant that this team will have no choice but to run its offense thru him. I am eager for the day that Yao Ming is the primary offensive option and opposing teams are forced to react to his decisions.
Old Man Rock, Interesting that you bring up players like Jordan and Hakeem. Notice when/how their teams starting winning it big. The Bulls vaulted to the elite of the NBA once they added COMPLEMENTARY pieces to Jordan and got an IDENTITY. That means a sidekick that complements his game (Pippen) and tough, intelligent role players that understand the game. The Bulls became a team that was very efficient on offense and really played extremely hard nosed defense b/c they fit together extemely well and understood how to work toward a common goal. Hakeem's Rockets went from early playoff exits year after year to back to back titles once the Rockets complemented him with the appropriate talent. Developing an identity is not some easy thing; the team needs to have the appropriate complementary talent, and this team simply does not. Since you like using terms like "history has proven", how about naming me one championship team that had three guards with sub 2 to 1 ast to TO ratios. I cant think of any b/c championship teams dont have three low bball IQ idiots that run the show and simply do not complement each others games or that of the team.
You ring? I missed the game, which is partly why I haven't said anything, but based on what I've heard, here's what I think: Well, things aren't completely bleak-we are still in the playoff picture- but I agree with, and have agreed with a lot of the sentiments in this thread. The age thing isn't an excuse as a whole...I think it grants individuals mulligans (Griffin for inconsistency as a whole, and Ming for inconsistency with aggressiveness). We've seen the same thing regarding playing down (or up) to the competition for 3+ years now. We can go toe to toe with the best of the East (Indiana), and then receive a beat down by a garbage team like NY. The dissapointing thing is that it's not getting better. Even more disconcerting about this GS loss is it came RIGHT ON THE HEELS of Rudy's, and the team's comments about how there would be 2 good teams in the West not making the playoffs, and that it requires that they take care of business against the lesser team. I've been saying for a while that this backcourt rotation just is too boneheaded to be effective. The easiest change to make (piece of crap contract notwithstanding) would be Moochie, but I think it may take something like moving Mobley to kickstart this offense. I do NOT trade Francis, but I have very little problem moving him to SG if we could bring in say, Andre Miller. The thing with this team, is that the frontcourt is masterfully crafted, partly luck, partly some extremely shrewd GM moves. We have the franchise center, a PF with a rangy shot and awesome shot-blocking abilities, with those 2 backed by a rebounding hoss, and an extremely offensively-gifted 4. The 3 slot has an absolute lock down defender with huge open court abilities, one of the best shooters of all time (though the way he's shooting right now, I start dropping his minutes fairly significantly), and a rookie with well-rounded game.
I havent read thru the entire thread yet, so I duno if anyone has posted this comment yet... Yao was getting manhandled in the post yesterday. His fadeway was getting rejected, and the only move that he really seems to have goin for him is the baseline spin. The baseline spin can only be done once or twice a game to catch ur opponent off guard, but no more. Without Yao's stretch of 70% fg shooting or whatever it was, I'd venture to say that Yao's fg percentage would be barely 50%, maybe even lower. Yao has NOT been an effective post option during the last couple of games, and it amazes me to see people saying the offense should be run through Yao. So what if he has a smaller man on him? Yao got stopped by the likes of Michael Doleac and Kurt Thomas... I actually believe this problem can be solved (as i've preached many times) by Yao simply doing a hook shot, but he continues to resort to fadeways and tough up and under moves. Maybe once he gets it together, he can run the offense, but not at his current state.
Barely 50% or even a little lower is still as good of if not the best percentage on our team. Something else I have noticed about Yao Ming is that he turns it up a notch in the fourth quarter and seems more aggresive during cruntch time. My reason for wanting to run the offense through Yao Ming though is not because of his shooting, but it is because of his decission making procces. When the ball goes to Yao Ming something good happens more often than not.
I agree with the notion that Yao should have more offense run through him when he is ready; however, even if he becomes the most dominant player in the league you cannot expect him to create EVERY shot the team takes. This basically means that one or more of the guards needs to be able to make intelligent reads IN ADDITION to Yao receiving more of a role. In this day and age, you simply cannot have a completely one dimensional offense. Despite what people believe, the Rockets did not dump down to Hakeem EVERY play of the game. Hakeem received the ball plenty of times which I want to happen eventually with Yao, but the Rockets also mixed in a very effective pick and roll play. Otis Thorpe was very good in this situation. In addition, those teams were able to rack up a good number of easy baskets in transition b/c they understood how to effectively run a fast break. This is the direction I want to see this new age of the Rockets move towards. Have heady guards that are effective in pick and roll and such situations and understand how to orchestrate a fast break PLUS establish the low post consistently and effectively. An effective two pronged attack is what is needed.
MManal, I've been closely watching Lamar Odom recently, and I have to say, his shot looks much improved. He also is showing tremendous effort while on the floor. If he stays healthy till right before the trading deadline, what do you think about acquiring him? We don't really have the pieces, but a 3-team, or whatever. Don't you see Odom transforming this team into one of the better passing teams in the league? Ideally, I'd like to see us trading Mobley and Moochie for a VETERAN PG and a VETERAN SG. Brent Barry and Kenny Anderson? With Ey or Wilcox or MoT to the Sonics? Point being, I'd love to see us acquire Odom while dumping Mooch for a very playoff-experienced backup PG. I'm not sold on Posey's scoring, so Mobley is a question mark. Ming Griff Odom/Rice Mobley or Posey Francis I don't know if that team has enough scoring with Posey as the SG.
Yao shooting a poor percentage is no different from the guards shooting a poor percentage. I call Yao's opting to take fadeways instead of hook shots, a bad decision on his part. I call his hesitance on his moves bad decisions as well. Also, take into account that we had one of our best first quarters (well, at least we weren't down and shooting a horrible percentage) in the New Orleans game... consequently, in that first quarter we did not really give the ball to Yao and let him post up. And in the Golden State game, what happened? We gave it to Yao who missed 3 straight shots and we ended up down 8-0. The point I'm trying to make is that Yao is not ready to run the offense yet. EArly on, when he was on his 70% shooting tear, it seemed like nothing could stop him, and it seemed like perhaps he was ready to be the main cog of the offense. But now, he is getting neutralized while posting up... you can't have the guy your offense runs through getting neutralized. Once he proves to me that he has regained that dominance which we saw earlier on, then he can run the offense IMO. Blaming our guards and coming up with a 1 step solution of "GIVE IT TO YAO" isn't going to solve our problems yet.
I like Sane's post. Lamar Odom is a great, great fit for the team. I'd gladly give up on EG + for LO. In my dream world, we get Odom and Miller in the offseason, and sign a vet pf to the MCE. Ok, that won't happen, there's not enough money. Damn Glen Rice and Mo Taylor to ... to.. heck. I remember Rudy's good rocket teams getting waxed by Orlando and Minnesota and LAC, too. The guy just has no grip on his team. Year after year, team after team, the same thing. Plays...ok, team no listen. No motivation. No direction. No one cares what Rudy has to say. Only when a player demands the respect of his teammates by force ("You must give the Dream back his change!") do they begin to function. Sometimes, the players are so embarrassed they begin to question themselves, and try to play by the book. Sometimes, it works, and they buy into it. But not for long. Rudy's the landlord that let's his tenants pay late every month. And then they skip a month. And trash the apt. And set the place on fire. But the always promise they're good tenants, sez, Rudy. I know they're good for it. Too bad, Rudy, the building is a slum. Sadly, even if your bad tenants shoot themselves, you make the new ones bad, too. As you consistantly excuse the bad tenants, the good tenants inevitably drift to the dark side.
Just in case you don't know, Yao is still the best shooter in Rockets. His FG% still ranks #2 in NBA. He hasn't had such a poor shooting night like the one he displayed against GS. In GS game, Yao was the one who put up two baskets in the 4th Quarter to tie the game. Let's see in GS game.... How 'bout giving the ball to SF? Oh... SF shot 5-19... a 26.3% FG, still lower than Yao's 4-12... a 33.3% FG. So SF should never run the offense. How 'bout giving it to Griffin? Oh... Griffin shot 3-10, same level as Yao. So Griffin should not have the ball either. How 'bout Cuttino? The guy is da man... shooting 11-21, a 52% FG. But this same guy shot 0-12 at the other game. So what are you really talking about?
